McMaster receives treasure trove of ad materials from Pirate Group

A significant collection of advertising campaign materials from some of North America's most iconic brands - Molson, Coca Cola, Pepsi, McDonald's, General Motors and Budweiser among them - has been donated to McMaster University from the Pirate Group.

Pirate Group is the largest advertising audio production company in Canada, co-founded in 1990 by Terry O'Reilly, and includes partners Tom Eymundson, Chris Tait, Tom Goudie and Vanya Drakul. The unique archive documents the creation of some 50,000 radio and television commercials from 1981-2007, featuring celebrities such as Leslie Nielson, Bob Newhart, Ellen DeGeneres, John Cleese, Jay-Z, Kiefer Sutherland and Eugene Levy.

There are concept presentations, casting sessions and auditions, script edits, music demos, final tracks, sheet music and lyrics and final commercials, among other materials.

It includes preparatory materials for such notable commercials as Becel's "I Cant Believe Its Not Butter" series, spots for the Hockey Hall of Fame, the Super Bowl, Eaton's, the first ads for early cell phones and campaign ads for prime ministers.